MARK WILLACY Rogue Forces: An explosive insiders’ account of Australian SAS war crimes in Afghanistan. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
In Rogue Forces journalist Mark Willacy documents the disturbing truth about war crimes committed by Australia’s SAS forces in Afghanistan. Lord Acton is the one who said ‘power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ He added, ‘Great men are...
BARRY NICHOLLS Second Innings: On men, mental health and cricket. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
In this poignant memoir Barry Nicholls melds family and personal history with reflections on cricket and mental health. According to Beyond Blue, men in Australia are known for ‘bottling things up’, which increases the risk of depression or anxiety being untreated –...
AC GRAYLING The Frontiers of Knowledge. Reviewed by Chris Maher
AC Grayling ranges across multiple disciplines as he presents the case for a broader understanding of the world. At this year’s Sydney Writers Festival, renowned philosopher and author AC Grayling implored the audience to become multi-literate, that is to read widely...
DAVID LINDENMAYER The Great Forest; MEG LOWMAN The Arbornaut. Reviewed by Ann Skea
David Lindenmayer’s homage to the beauty of the Victorian Central Highlands and Meg Lowman’s memoir of a career spent among the treetops both explore the importance of our forests. These two books are very different but the purpose of both is the same: to...
MICHAEL HOLDING Why We Kneel, How We Rise. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Michael Holding assembles a stellar array of champions to discuss their experiences of racism, Black achievements on and off the field, and finding a way forward. Michael Holding was a champion fast bowler and a member of the all-conquering West Indies cricket team...
CATHERINE RAVEN Fox and I: An uncommon friendship. Reviewed by Ann Skea
A reclusive scientist and a wild fox form an unusual bond in Catherine Raven’s memoir. I needed to be thinking of how my relationship with the fox began and why we rendezvoused every day at 4.15 p.m. We were meeting, after all, under odd and uncomfortable...
CLAIRE DUNN Rewilding the Urban Soul. Reviewed by Tracy Sorensen
Part memoir, part urgent appeal, Claire Dunn’s new book explores how our urban lives can become more intimate with nature. For many of us, the world of lockdown has been about life inside four walls: comfy clothes, home schooling and baking experiments under the...
MICHAEL WARNER The Boys’ Club: Power, politics and the AFL. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Michael Warner doesn’t hold back in this examination of the scandals that have beset the AFL over the past two decades. In professional sport teams compete not only with each other on the field, but also off the field for fans, sponsors and players. Despite this...
CAROLYN COLLINS Save Our Sons: Women, dissent and conscription during the Vietnam War; MEREDITH BURGMANN and NADIA WHEATLEY Radicals: Remembering the Sixties. Reviewed by Kathy Gollan
Save Our Sons and Radicals remind us that the anti-war protesters of the 1960s and 70s were many and varied, and so too were their campaigns. These two books canvass the decade 1965-75, during which the Vietnam War dominated political life in Australia. We had...
EDMUND RICHARDSON Alexandria: The quest for the lost city. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Edmund Richardson recounts the hazardous life of ‘one of the greatest archaeologists of the age’. Nineteenth-century archaeologist James Lewis (alias Charles Masson), who sought traces of Alexander the Great in Afghanistan, was clearly an excellent storyteller, and in...
LAURA BATES Men Who Hate Women. Reviewed by Justine Ettler
Laura Bates has produced a confronting examination of extreme misogyny in Men Who Hate Women. Best known for creating the Everyday Sexism Project, in Men Who Hate Women Laura Bates has produced a book that is more polemic than a considered work of traditional...
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